


baby, there's a shark in the water

by lazyfish



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Environmentalism, F/M, Fantasy elements, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:02:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26792569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazyfish/pseuds/lazyfish
Summary: When Bobbi Morse goes on a business trip to the Azores islands, she knows there are secrets to uncover - namely, why the HYDRA Corporation is so insistent on rolling back protections on the Azores Marine Park. What she doesn’t know is there are secrets of a far more personal variety waiting to be revealed, including one about the man who’s come close to stealing Bobbi’s heart.
Relationships: Lance Hunter/Bobbi Morse
Comments: 13
Kudos: 17





	baby, there's a shark in the water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gort](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gort/gifts).



Bobbi didn’t expect the sea breeze to be quite so chilly when she stepped off the plane, but there was a lot about this trip she didn’t expect - being on it, for one thing. She had gotten a call yesterday afternoon that she had a red-eye booked to the Lisbon airport and she needed to prepare for another long, grueling battle against HYDRA Corporation. The hours since had been spent hastily packing for a two-week sojourn to a tiny Portuguese island chain. Bobbi hadn’t managed to scrape anything together on what HYDRA was doing this time even though she was paying exorbitant fees for in-flight WiFi.

HYDRA had its fingers in so many pies it was impossible to know where to start without extra information from the ground. From what May had told her, there wasn’t much information to start with; HYDRA was being oddly hush-hush about its newest projects, which was frustrating to the extreme.

At least her anger was cutting through the haze of jet lag, Bobbi thought to herself with a wry smile as she made her way to baggage claim. The Ponta Delgada Airport was the smallest airport Bobbi had ever been in - normally Shield Environmental sent her to less out-of-the-way locations where they guessed her expertise would have the most positive effect. Bobbi was curious to what had changed May’s mind about this place in particular, but she had learned not to question her boss.

Once Bobbi retrieved her singular suitcase she hurried to the arrivals area, shading her eyes against the backlight from the sun streaming in through the windows. After a minute of scanning the admittedly sparse crowd she spotted a woman holding a sign reading _Morse_ and hurried over.

“Hi,” Bobbi greeted, hoping she didn’t look as frazzled as she felt. “You’re Izzy?”

“That’s me.” The woman grinned, her warm brown eyes crinkling at the corners. The rough leather texture of her face spoke to years spent out in the sunshine, as did the slightly lighter shade of brunette at the roots of her hair. “And you must be Barbara.”

 _Ugh_. She told May to stop putting that on her forms. “Bobbi’s fine. Preferred, actually.” She stuck out her hand to shake.

“Bobbi it is, then,” Izzy said affably, gripping Bobbi’s hand tightly. Bobbi wasn’t sure how someone so normal looking could have such a fierce handshake, but it was enough to make Bobbi decide immediately she liked Izzy. That, and not asking any more questions about her godawful given name and why she wanted to change it.

“Do you want to swing by your hotel first before we head to the Marine Park?” Izzy asked as she led Bobbi out of the airport.

“Nah, as long as you don’t mind my stuff hanging in the back of your car for a while,” Bobbi said. Going into her hotel room would just put her face-to-face with a bed she desperately wanted to fall into. She’d rather have something else to focus on, like meeting her coworkers (co-conspirators?) for the next two weeks.

Izzy unlocked her car, which was actually a truck that looked more prepared for off-roading than highway driving. From what Bobbi learned from Googling, the Azores don’t have many highways in the first place, so the truck makes more sense. Bobbi shoved her suitcase and carry-on into the back seat before swinging herself into the passenger seat.

“Feel free to adjust the seat if you need to,” Izzy said. “Hunter and Idaho aren’t as tall as you are so it might be a tight squeeze.” Bobbi did as she was told, giving herself a few more inches of legroom so she didn’t feel like she was going to knee herself in the face if they hit a speed bump wrong.

“Are all of you from the States?” Bobbi asked as Izzy backed out of her parking spot and began navigating them away from the airport. She’d been under the impression the people running the Marine Park were natives of the Azores, and Izzy definitely wasn’t that, given her unapologetically Midwestern accent. 

“Nah. Idaho’s not even from Idaho, the asshole - he’s from the Bronx. Doesn’t have the accent, though. Hunter’s from England.”

“Ah, so he’s at least on the right side of the Atlantic,” Bobbi joked.

“Something like that.” Izzy flashed Bobbi a smile.

“So, I was doing some research on the plane, and I couldn’t quite figure out what exactly HYDRA’s trying to _do_ ,” Bobbi said.

“You and me both,” Izzy sighed. “We know they want to take some of the Marine Park’s land and reduce the protection for the surrounding sea life, but we can’t figure out what for and the government keeps denying our petitions for information.”

Bobbi groaned. “I thought shitty bureaucracy was an American thing.”

“Honey, every place has it, the US of A just perfected it,” Izzy laughed. “Trust me, we’re doing everything we can. Thanks for coming on such short notice, by the way. We really needed some backup.”

“It’s no problem. The weather is _way_ nicer here than July in southern California,” Bobbi said, shuddering. She was California born and raised, but she was from the northern side of the state, where hundred-plus degree temperatures weren’t the norm even in the summer months. Even if the breeze had originally chilled her when exiting the airplane, Bobbi was looking forward to the cooler weather.

“The weather’s way nicer here than most places,” Izzy agreed. “It’s why we all decided to stay.”

“You were tourists?” 

“We were temporary help for the Marine Park,” Izzy corrected. “And when the old crew started wanting to go back to the mainland for one reason or another, we stepped up. And now it’s just the three of us.” 

“Doesn’t that get lonely?” Bobbi asked. They were out of the city now, trundling down a road Bobbi assumed led to the Marine Park’s main facilities somewhere down the line.

“Not really. I’ve got a girlfriend stateside who calls every few days and visits a couple times a year. Idaho’s unofficially the father of every stray on the island.”

“And Hunter?” Bobbi prompted.

“Gee, quite the interrogator, aren’t you?” Izzy laughed. “Nah, Hunter’s fine where he is. He’s too cocky for anyone to want to spend forever with him, if you ask me.”

Bobbi nodded absently - she knew _that_ kind of guy all too well. Thinking they were God’s gift to humankind and wanting everyone to know it. Izzy seemed to like him well enough, though, so hopefully he wouldn’t be too much of an ass to work with.

“Here we are.” The truck trundled to a stop outside a short, squat building with peeling white paint. “You can meet the boys and we’ll show you what we have so far.”

“Awesome.” Bobbi slid out of the passenger seat, holding back a yawn. The slight rocking motion of the truck on the uneven road had been enough to make her jet lag come back with a vengeance, and a long nap was in her near future.

Izzy led her through the front door, down a long hallway, and into a small office at the back of the building. Two men were sitting at desks - one with his feet propped up on his desk, the other spinning idly in his rolling chair.

“What are they paying you two for, exactly?”

“Looking pretty,” Feet-On-Desk drawled, English accent on full display. That was Hunter, then.

“Making sure he doesn’t do anything dumb,” Spinning-In-Chair (Idaho) said.

“Oi!”

“Oi yourself!”

“Boys.” Izzy snapped her fingers commandingly. “We have a guest.”

Both Hunter and Idaho appeared to register Bobbi’s presence at the same time, and Hunter practically threw his feet off the desk, mouth agape, while Idaho allowed his chair to drift to a lazy stop.

“This is Bobbi Morse. She’s the one Melinda sent to help us out with HYDRA,” Izzy announced. “Bobbi, these are the pains in my ass I told you about on the way here.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Bobbi said, flashing a smile.

“And you,” Hunter apparently found his voice before Idaho did. “Christ, Iz, you didn’t say she was going to be hot!” There was the cockiness Izzy had warned about.

“She’s not my type,” Izzy deadpanned. Bobbi couldn’t hide her smirk in time, though she did feel bad when Hunter visibly deflated at her expression. “Do you have the papers to show her?” Izzy prompted.

“Yeah, yeah,” Hunter said, rustling around on his desk. “Bobbi, you wanna sit?”

“That’d be great, thanks.”

Hunter kicked another rolling chair in her general direction, but Bobbi still had to circle his desk to get to it. She plopped into the seat unceremoniously. Maybe this was a bad idea - the sitting down, that was. Hunter passed her the papers Izzy had asked her about, and Bobbi flicked through them.

“Shark counts?” she asked after a minute.

“It’s one of the reasons the Marine Park exists - protection for migrating sharks. We’re in the migration path of makos and blues, and see a couple other species as well,” Izzy explained. “We think their play is to prove that the shark populations are doing well enough that they don’t need additional protections.”

“And these numbers are…?”

“Obviously false,” Hunter snorted. “We’d be lucky to see those counts in a week. A single day is basically impossible.”

“Not to mention the way species _become_ endangered is because we stop protecting migration paths,” Idaho added from his desk. “And once HYDRA’s built whatever the fuck they’re trying to get permits for it’ll be a lot more difficult to get them to tear it down for the sake of the sharks.”

“Lovely,” Bobbi said.

“It would be easier if we had more information,” Izzy lamented. “We were thinking of going on an expedition tomorrow and taking our own counts. Want to tag along?”

“Sure.” Bobbi wasn’t able to hold back her yawn this time, and Izzy gave her an amused smile.

“We’ve got coffee if you want some.”

“Or she can just go crash,” Hunter said. “Not like we’ve got much else for her to do.”

“Can you take her to the hotel?” Izzy asked. “I’m gonna do more digging.”

Hunter nodded. Izzy threw him her keys and he caught them in one fluid motion with his left hand. Bobbi was out of her chair before Hunter had to brush past her, and she followed him out of the building wordlessly.

“You can -“ Hunter began when Bobbi once again found herself in the passenger seat. “Iz already told you,” he said, cutting himself off when he noticed she wasn’t crunched up beside him.

“She called you and Idaho short,” Bobbi snorted.

“Traitor,” Hunter muttered as he turned the key in the ignition. “I’m not even that much shorter than you! You’re what, five eleven, six foot?”

“Five eleven,” Bobbi answered, trying to resist the urge to smirk again. She liked Hunter’s face a lot better when he wasn’t pouting - not that she was lookingat Hunter’s face any more than she would look at someone else’s face.

(Okay, so maybe Bobbi had a type in men. And okay, _maybe_ that type was cocky as the devil but pretty as an angel, and _maybe_ Hunter fit that type to a tee with his slightly-curling brunette hair and hazel eyes verging on gold, but she was _not_ going to get involved. Nope, definitely not.)

“I’m five ten,” Hunter said, puffing his chest. “So really I’m just an inch shorter than you.”

“Unless I wear heels.”

Hunter sighed dramatically. “It's really not fair women get to wear heels and men don’t. I would look great in heels.”

And _maybe_ Bobbi had been looking at Hunter’s ass when he had led her out to the truck, but she at least had the tact not to agree with him that his ass would look great if he wore heels.

“You can still wear them,” Bobbi suggested.

“But then I’d break my ankle,” Hunter said, “and Iz would kill me.”

“She’d kill you for breaking your ankle?” 

“Don’t let her fool you. She can be a bit of a mama bear when she wants to be,” Hunter said, glancing over at Bobbi. “We’re all a bit more than we seem.”

“Isn’t everyone?” Bobbi asked, propping her elbow against the window so she could rest her chin on her hand. The thing she hated the most about California was that it seemed like everyone was always trying to be something they weren’t - like they weren’t okay with being exactly what they were and letting people accept that. It was exactly what had ended Bobbi’s previous relationship; he had wanted her to be something more than she was, and she hadn’t liked the things he was hiding.

“Touché.” Hutner grinned at her. 

Bobbi let out another yawn. Maybe she should’ve accepted Izzy’s offer of coffee, if only to get her through the check in process and to her room without passing out.

\---

Thirty minutes later, Bobbi wished she had drank a whole pot of coffee, because everything had gone to hell in a handbasket. The hotel had somehow lost her reservation, which seemed _extremely_ suspicious considering she had confirmed it and asked May to make sure she hadn’t fucked up in her slightly sleep-deprived state.

It wouldn’t have been the first time HYDRA had resorted to corporate espionage - or maybe it was an honest mistake. The hard part was not knowing which it was.

Luckily for Bobbi, Hunter hadn’t driven away when the concierge had announced there was no reservation under her name, so she was able to get back in the truck and have several harried phone conversations. For the number of people that had been at the airport (that was, not many at all), a surprising amount of hotels in the area seemed to be booked to the gills.

“There are some people that stay for the whole summer,” Hunter offered when Bobbi was rejected by yet another hotel. “Keeps them busy for a couple weeks straight with not much turnover.”

“Yeah, I’m getting that,” Bobbi said with a sigh. “Know any other places close to the park?”

“You could just say with me, if you wanted,” Hunter offered. “I have a guest room and everything.” He paused. “I guess Iz didn't want to volunteer my space without asking me first, otherwise I’m not quite sure why she wouldn’t have told your boss we had a place for you. Cheaper than a hotel, too.”

“This was all kind of last minute, as you know. It might have slipped her mind.” Bobbi shrugged. Everything had been thrown together a little haphazardly, and it had only been by luck she had been able to get the single flight of the day from Lisbon to Ponta Delgado. “If you’re offering, though…” Staying with someone she knew, however casually, seemed infinitely preferable to an overcrowded hotel at the edge of the city.

“I am offering,” Hunter said firmly. “You can’t take down HYDRA if you don’t get enough sleep, yeah?”

“I won’t be taking down HYDRA regardless,” Bobbi said. She’d tried that a few times before with no success; these days she focused on winning her individual battles and hoping that would be enough to someday win the war. Maybe it was a naive hope, but it was better than burning out by wondering why she hadn’t managed to single handedly destroy a multibillion dollar company.

“Good as, if you save the park from them,” Hunter declared. “My place isn’t far from here. Do you have Izzy’s phone? She was going to pick you up tomorrow, don’t want her to go out of her way just to find out you’re not there.”

When Bobbi said she didn’t, in fact, have Izzy’s contact information, Hunter rattled off her phone number, followed by his own and Idaho’s. Bobbi didn’t think she’d be using much of them, considering most of her waking hours were going to be spent with one of the three of them (especially now since she was crashing with Hunter), but they were good to have.

The drive to Hunter’s place was predictably short, and they pulled up the gravel drive in short order.

“I don’t have the guest room made up, but you’re welcome to crash in the master for now,” Hunter offered. “Mi casa su casa and all that.”

Bobbi wanted to insist that sleeping in the bed of someone who was a veritable stranger was too much of an imposition, but her body was crying for sleep and she wasn’t sure she had it in her to wait long enough for Hunter to find sheets and make the guest bed. It was probably only her sleep deprivation that was making staying at Hunter’s seem like a good idea at all, since normally a single, attractive man inviting her to stay at his house was a big red flag. “Thanks,” Bobbi said through yet another yawn. Hunter fiddled with the lock of his front door for a moment before letting them both into the house.

“Master’s in the back of the house. Master bath is attached if you want to shower or anything. I’ll bring your stuff in for you?”

Bobbi nodded in response to his question, trudging down the hall. She couldn’t make herself even open the door to the master bathroom, let alone prepare for a shower. Instead she face-planted on to the bed, inhaling once deeply before her body’s need for sleep finally caught up with her. 

**Author's Note:**

> In case you missed it, it’s Elle’s birthday! You may know her as my partner in crime and better writing half, but I know her as one of the most amazing people in the world. Elle, you make me better in so many ways and I am so, so thankful to have gotten to know you and spend the past two years (!!!) as your friend. I hope this year is a great one for you. I love you <3


End file.
